


Our year in the Western Empire

by Lanka_Moxie



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2018-11-02 17:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10949514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanka_Moxie/pseuds/Lanka_Moxie





	1. The gate to our futures

Climbing out of her family's car Akane ran around to the back, feeling like she was already late, and even more wanting to get the good bye's all done and said. It was going to suck everyone knew this, it was like a band-aid everyone said. She drug the suitcase up to the side of the car and went to say something to her family, but the entire thing was drowned out by roar of some plane’s engines roaring to life as it too off over their heads. 

Looking now she realized her mother was crying as they stood there. She stepped into her and gave her a hug, telling her not to worry that it wouldn’t be that long, and that they could always talk over the internet. When she felt her mother’s warm tears on her cheek she could feel cracks in the cool demeener she’d been trying to get herself into for the last week already forming. 

They seemed to stay together there at the drop offs for an hour if not more. “I’ve gotta check in.” She finally managed to say, trying her best to pull away from their never ending stream of hugs and advice on subjects that they were as qualified as her to talk about. 

Finally after a painful amount of time saying good byes she got away from them, somehow managing not to have cried, though it felt like any other good-byes would have broken her where ever she had been standing when it was made. 

Standing behind the security gate she waved at them before turning and running off dragging her heavy bag behind her. Even though it was the largest that the airline would let her take without having to pay extra. Even with it’s size she knew the one of the first things she’d have to do once in she was off the plane would be to go and buy some new clothes as there were precious few in her bag, just two days worth. The rest of the space taken up by music books and other essentials that she would need there. Well mostly music books. 

As she walked through the airport she pulled her cellphone to see if anyone had sent her any texts, she looked at it for a moment confused when it was turned off, but then realized she’d already switched it over to an European carrier and couldn’t turn it back on until after she was already on the ground. She looked at her boarding pass and felt her stomach sink a little as she noticed she would be at gate four. “Ugh, really that’s the foot I start out on...” She grumbled to herself even if she had never really thought of it before, it just seemed like a bad sign.

Letting out a sigh she continued her walk as she looked around for the others who would be going with her on this exchange program. There had only been five spots on this trip and not only had she managed to get one but her friend Natsumi had managed as well, though their friends Fuko and Yuki had both applied neither of them had gotten a slot, even though it was those two cousins who had told them about this in the first place. She’d have to bring them back something really nice. 

She was practically at the gate already and hadn’t seen any of the other girls yet. She bit her lip wondering where they could be. Her stomach started to sink and she checked her watch, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw that she was still good on time. She wondered if she had managed be the first one here.

 

_____

 

"...yes, yes, I'll be careful. I'll stay with the group and I'll ask Akane to come with me if I need to go somewhere--correction: I'll make Akane go with me if I need to go somewhere...yes, yes, I'll call you when the plane lands. And when I get to my room...I don't know the room number...I'm not there yet am I..? I already said I'll call when I get there. I'm not a toddler, you know?"

Though she needed to get off the phone soon before she started crying like one. Natsumi had been on plenty of airplanes in her life, but never without the rest of her family. This was going to be her first big grown up adventure, and she was already homesick. The Uber driver gave he a sympathetic look in the rearview mirror. He'd already gotten an earful from her family about getting her to the airport safely as they loaded her luggage into the trunk. At least in Austria the majority of the population wouldn't know that the Gingas were a bunch of crazies.

"Yes, yes, I know you have to pay to use the public toilets there..no I'm pretty sure that toilet paper is included in the price...I'm going to Vienna, not Siberia..."

The car slowed and Natsumi looked out the window. "I've got to go. I'm at the airport...yes, I'll call you the moment the plane lands, even if the others do think I'm the worlds biggest baby for having to check in every 15 minutes..I love you...Bye"

Damn she didn't even have time to cry. She'd hoped to do so in the relative privacy of the car, but now she'd been joining her group momentarily.

The driver got out and started pulling her luggage from the trunk.

"Oh, you don't need to do that..I can--thanks." she said with a sigh as her bags were stacked like a wheeled tower of hanoi. 

She opened her German phrasebook to check out her boarding pass, tucked in there with her passport. Gate 4. She hoped Akane was there already.

 

_____

 

As Akane waited for the others to show up she could feel anxiety flowing over her and hitting in distinct waves. Each one would last about five minutes before she was able to calm herself down enough to look around and wonder just where everyone else was, starting the cycle over again. When Natsumi showed up Akane was in the middle of being subsumed by doubt and was once again becoming sure that she had somehow missed the flight. 

At some point Akane had started pacing back and forth, eyes glued firmly to the ground, her teeth gnawing on the tip of her thumb. Looking up she saw Natsumi coming up to her. "Natsumi!" She cried running over to her and hugging her has tightly as she could, almost afraid that it wasn't really here. "Oh, I'm so happy you're here, I was thinking that I had somehow..." It occurred to Akane what she was doing. They had all agreed that once they met at the airport today it was going to be only German between them. Plus there was this whole gaudy display that just wasn't becoming of her. 

Pulling back Akane forced a small cough into her hand, clearing her throat. With her composure restored but unable to wipe the bubbly smile off of her face she looked at Natsumi. "Tag, Natsumi. Bist du bereit für unseren Flug?" She spoke slowly, trying her best not to stumble too badly over her words. "Haben du sich an Ihren Pass und Ticket erinnert...?"Those words trailed off as Akane could feel her face going white as she realized that she wasn't sure where her's were despite the traveler's pouch hanging from around her neck. She looked around practically dancing on the spot as she lifted her legs up and down, clearly ready to run where ever she needed to as she tried to figure out just what she would needed to do. 

 

_____

 

After she checked her bags and made her way to the gate Natsumi saw Akane had already arrived. She was standing alone, so Natsumi assumed the other in the group and their chaperone hadn't arrived yet. Akane rushed over and Natsumi was glad she had her friend there with her at the start of this big journey.

Akane seemed similarly relieved since she gave her a big hug. "Natsumi! Oh, I'm so happy you're here, I was thinking that I had somehow..." then she remembered their pledge to speak only German. "Tag, Natsumi. Bist du bereit für unseren Flug? Haben du sich an Ihren Pass und Ticket erinnert...?

"Ah. Wie Geht's?" Natsumi said. "Ja. Ich bereite für unseren Flug. Und du?"

"Haben du sich an Ihren Pass und Ticket erinnert...? Akane asked then seemed to realize she'd lost track of her own her passport and boarding pass.

"Hast du deine Pass und Ticket..." Natsumi flipped through her book. "...verlegen?" 

Natsumi hoped not, otherwise she'd feel pretty foolish practicing her German in the middle of a true crisis. Akane was jumping about looking around everywhere. If she didn't find her documents, they would have to switch back to Japanese. 

Akane seemed pretty flustered, but maybe she was just panicking? "In hier?" Natsumi suggested, flipping the travel pouch up to Akane's line of vision Natsumi had one of her own, hidden under the waistband of her skirt, which currently held her passport, credit card, documents, and emergency funds in both yen and euros.

"Du soll dese tasche unter deine Kleider es..." She flipped through her book again. (Her vocabulary wasn't the best when it came to verbs.) "...verstecken." She admonished playfully, hoping she got that right and didn't inadvertently suggest Akane tuck her suitcase into her underpants or some other foolish thing.

 

_____

 

When Natsumi held up the pouch that was hanging around Anake's neck her face lit up as she grabbed it and opened it up to make sure that everything was there. Quickly she went through each item: Passport, check; boarding pass, check; emergency credit card, check; and finally Euros, check. She took a moment to double check the amount, five 20s, four 50s, and two 100s for 500 in total. It seemed to strange to have bills with such a small face value. When she'd initially gotten them she'd thought that the bank had made a mistake after all she'd given them nearly 70,000 yen! Damned exchange rates. "Ich soll?" Akane asked Natsumi when she was informed that she was supposed to be wearing her pouch under her clothes. 

As they stood there talking other people for this flight were slowly starting to show up and take up the empty seats as they all waited for ticket holders to be called for boarding. Looking down Akane tried to figure out just where she could keep it under her clothes. She didn't have too much on a skirt with knee socks, one of her favourite tops and a light coat that was only good for keeping the sun off of her skin. After a moment of looking at herself figuring out just how she should have it under her clothes. 

Suddenly Akane clutched her body as though she was trying to hide herself from Natsumi. “Ach Natsumi! Du kannst nicht bedeuten... Wenn du ein Junge wäre, könnte ich verstehen. Aber...” Akane looked away feigning embarrassment at Natsumi's gaze. “Wir sind beide Mädchen.” As she went on it was becoming too much for her. If she kept this up much longer she was sure she would break down laughing. “Muss ich wirklich nur streifen, um meine Brieftasche wegzulegen?” Akane was looking around doing her best to look nervous as she did. 

 

_____

 

Natsumi shook her head and rolled her eyes at Akane's theatrics, then thumbed through her book. 

These sort of situations just weren't covered under common situations you might run into in German speaking countries in their introductory coursework. Though with Natsumi and Akane travelling together, they really, really should have been.

"Gott in Himmel, Akane! Willst du mich verhaften lassen?" 

With the way Akane was carrying on, Natsumi was glad the rest of the group hadn't arrived yet to witness this. Though some of the parents with small children were pulling them closer and away from Natsumi.

She'd have to do some brushing up on the flight so she'd be prepared for their arrival in a country where people might not appreciate their sense of humor. She already knew how to say things like "I've never met this young lady before in all my life" but she'd make a point to looking up more advanced phrases, like "I'm not saying another word until you get me a lawyer who in fluent in Japanese."

"Du hebst nicht deinen Rock, Hofnarr."

Her mother had bought her the money belt and insisted she keep all of her money and important documents and wear it everywhere, even around the other students. She thought her mother was being a bit paranoid, but a promise was a promise. She wore a small backpack style purse, but it just had her phone in it, and about ten euros in cash for incidentals.

Natsumi reached into the waistband of her skirt and pulled up the travel pouch just far enough to reveal the zipper, which she unzipped and then withdrew a 20 euro note just for demonstration purposes. Then she put the money back into the money belt, closed the zipper and pulled the entire money belt out and unsnapped the clasp.

"Auf diese Weise."

She fastened the elastic band around her waist, drawing the thick elastic cord taut against her belly, then flattened the pouch against her skin, and pushed it down into the waist of her skirt just far enough until it was no longer visible.

"Wenn jemand dort sucht, haben wir größere Probleme," she said with a wink.

 

_____

 

When Natsumi accused Akane of trying to get her arrested all that Akane could respond with was a small smile with the tip of her tongue sticking out. When Natsumi continued on Akane had to reply with an indignant "Hofnarr?" She thought for a moment before snatching the book out of Natsumi's hand to check just what that word even meant. "Hafnarr?!" She repeated once more as she finally found the word. "Ich bin kein Hofnarr. Wie kannst du das sagen, wenn ich so eindeutig ein Täuschen" Akane protested with a smile on her lips. 

Feeling a something brush against the small of her back Akane jumped to see who it was, when she looked it was some towering woman who seemed to have not even noticed the girl and was just continuing on her way. She breathed a sigh of relief as she turned back to Natsumi, who was showing her how she tucked away her pouch. 

Nodding along she thought about what Natsumi said about it being a problem. "Bist du sicher?” Akane asked before adding to it. “Ich meine, er könnte wirklich süß sein!” Finishing it off with a laugh and a wink. 

The place was starting to get crowded now as ever more people showed up. She glanced down at her small watch and back to Natsumi. “Wie lange bis das Einsteigen beginnt?” Akane asked, honestly not being sure, only having ever take more terrestrial forms of travel before, with maybe a dozen faeries added in for good measure. “Denkst du, die anderen sind schon hier? Ich sehe sie nirgendwo...” She wondered where they could be, would the two of them have to go it alone and figure out how to get from the airport to their dorms. What if they got on the wrong bus, they could end up in German, or Italy, or France, or Namibia!

 

_____

 

"Bist du sicher?" Akane asked. “Ich meine, er könnte wirklich süß sein!”

"Ha," Natsumi said with a smile. "Wenn ich einen Freund so finde, ist es gut, meine Brüder sind ein paar tausend Kilometer entfernt!" 

Freund was a loaded word in German, it could mean anything from a friend, to a serious boyfriend, to an occasional booty-call. The meaning of that word, and therefore the nature of the relationship in question, was often impossible to guess, even from the context, but from what Natsumi understood, German speakers didn't think much of the ambiguity.

"Kannst Du Dir vorstellen?"

Even though Natsumi was the youngest by only a matter of minutes, she was still very much the baby of the family. Probably because she'd been born so sickly...

Natsumi's eyes went wide and she pulled off her backpack and looked inside. She knew she only had a little bit of money and her phone in there, but she had to look anyway.

"Scheissssse," she said with a sick little laugh between gritted teeth. "Ich habe vergessen, meinen Inhalator zu bringen. Meine Mutti wird mich umbringen."

It wasn't that big of a deal. Her asthma wasn't so bad, especially indoors, and she had a few spare inhalers in her check luggage. But if her mother went through her purses and guessed that Natsumi forgot to bring one in her carry-on, Natsumi would probably be able hear her screaming all the way in Europe.

Natsumi shrugged and put her backpack back on because it wasn't that big of a deal. Akane wonder where the others were and whether they'd have to find the dorms by themselves. Natsumi doubted it. It seemed unlikely they'd turn a pair of middleschool girls loose on the streets of a foreign continent.

"Sie müssen bald hier ankommen."

 

_____

 

As Natsumi mentioned just how far her brothers were going to be from her Akane couldn't help but smile. “Armen du, die Wölfe in Österreich wissen nicht, die Leckerei, die sie bekommen werden!” Akane thought for a moment before adding. “Wir können nicht nur doppelte Termine machen! Ich werde nicht immer da sein, um dich zu beschützen!” Completely ignoring just how the two of them had met in the first place and exactly who was protecting whom. 

When Natsumi started to freak out Akane couldn't help but take a step back in surprise as she looked around worried as Natsumi explained about her forgotten inhaler. “Uh, vielleicht gibt es eine Apotheke irgendwo hier können wir es ersetzen?” Akane offered, as she looked around at the small selection of shops not too far from where their gate was when a voice came over the intercom. “Japan Air gate number four is now boarding first class and business class passengers for Vienna.” With the announcement and a number of people making their way to the staff manning the gate. “Wirst du in fliegen gehen?” Akane asked Natsumi wondering if they would have to get a different flight, and just where the hell were the others?! She asked herself again and again, one of them would surely know better than her what to do. 

Shooting a glance across to the people at the gates Akane wondered about telling them about Natsumi's current problem, but quickly brushed that off, realizing just how bad of an idea that was. All that telling them would do was get Natsumi and maybe her kicked off the flight. 

The crowd was thining surprisingly quickly as people queued up and started boarding the plane. It didn't seem like it would be all that long before they were the only two left by the gate at this rate. “Gut?” Was all that Akane could think of to ask Natsumi at this point.

 

_____

 

Natsumi smiled. Her German wasn't quite as good as Akane's, who had been planning a trip to Vienna possibly since her conception, but the meaning was clear enough for her to fill in the blanks of the few words she didn't know.

"Mit dir dort werden die Wölfe mich nicht sehen!"

When Akane voiced concern about her inhaler, Natsumi shrugged. "Ich brauche es nicht." Which was true as long as she didn't have to do any running. "Ich werde es aus meiner Tasche..." she flipped through her book. "...retten...In Österreich." 

"Ya. Wir gehen." Natsumi said, checking her boarding pass to make sure they had the correct flight number and gate. "Wo sind die anderen?" she muttered, half to herself.

It would make more sense that the two of them were in the wrong place than whole rest of the group combined, including the chaperones, but the numbers on the ticket couldn't be wrong. She checked the date. That was right too. But where were the others? Were they stuck in traffic? Had something happened? Did Akane and Natsumi gotten bumped to a different flight? 

Natsumi was tempted to call home, but her mother had been looking for any sign, no matter how subtle, to keep her only daughter from leaving the nest for a year, so if knew if she called she'd only be ordered to return home immediately, and forfeit the money she'd spent on the trip. There was no way that was happening.

She didn't know how Akane's family would feel about this, but she guessed her parents probably had similar anxieties about letting their young daughter travel to a foreign country.

Natsumi just had to hope this all got sorted out before they got to Europe.

_____

Opening her mouth to say something Akane was cut off before any words could come out. With a sharp tug on her arm she gave out a small yelp her throat clamping shut before she could say much more. She struggled before catching a glance of her assailant's face.

Wither her body relaxing Akane could feel the relief flowing over her. The 'attacker' had been one of the other girls in their group. She was tall, taller than any girl Akane knew as well as most boys. Her hair was auburn that went well past her waste. She had a stern look on her face that if Akane had known her a bit better she'd have realized that was just her neutral expression. 

"Wo sind Sie schon einmal?" She asked looking at Natsumi, already dragging Akane away, simply expecting the girl to follow. "Ach nein! Die schöne und reizend Prinzessin wird entführt! Was Held wird kommen, um sie zu retten!" Akane added waving her arms at An, before being taken around some hidden corner that had a small lounge and church in it where the rest of their group had been waiting, seemingly the entire them they'd been there.

\-----

The school chaperon, Ms. Hakaito gave Akane and Natsumi a stapled list of rules and a stern look as they took their place with the students.

"Jetzt sind wir alle hier," she furrowed her brow at the pair. "Ich werde die Regeln erklären...Wir reisen paarweise..."

Natsumi placed her hand on Akane's wrist, as if it wasn't obvious already to the others that they intended to stick together.

"In der Woche bleiben wir an der Schule. Am Wochenende, Sie können ausgehen. Verlassen den Schlafsaal nicht nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit."

Natsumi glanced down at the document in her hand, which explained the rules in more detail. They could sightsee on the weekends, but only in groups or pairs, only for a few hours per trip, only during daylight hours and only after signing a roster detailing their itinerary. 

How many days until someone gets into trouble? Natsumi wondered before looking up to listen to the rest of the rules.

\-----

Taking the sheet as Ms. Hakaito have the both of them the list of rules she read over them and quickly was able to come up with a much shorter version of the same list. "Come back to Japan with the same number of limbs and digits as you left with, and for the love of god don't bring back any babies. Also please don't break the law." Some of the rules did make Akane raise an eyebrow at them though. While it was true that none of them would be legally allowed to drink once they got back to Japan, a couple of the girls could order a beer or glass of wine as soon as they stepped onto the plane and the rest would be able to sometime before they left Austria to return to Japan.

As Natsumi placed her hand on Akane's wrist she put down the piece of paper, balancing it on her thigh before placing her own hand on Natsumi's own wrist. Glancing over she gave the girl a smile. Let it linger a bit her attention was brought back as Mrs. Hakaito cleared her throat for a long few moments. Akane felt her head gaze snap back to their chaperone. She spoke for a little bit before being interrupted by an announcement. "Japan Air gate number four is now boarding all passengers for Vienna." The announcement immediately repeated itself. Now Mrs. Haruna gave a much more natural sigh, having planned to have her entire spiel out long before general boarding had begun. The other girls were rustling in their seats clearly wanting to get onto the plane and settled in for the flight.

Finally after a while of talking and it being clear that none of the other girls had heard a single work she said. "Fein. Gehen Sie einfach, bekommen im Flugzeug. Wir werden dies auch weiterhin, wenn wir nach Österreich holen." Letting out an overly exasperated sigh she motioned towards the gates. The one with the auburn hair that had drug Akane over was up and to the gate like a shot, particularly giddy as she handed over her boarding pass to the attendant. "Will gehen?" Akane asked as she took Natsumi's hand in her own as she stood.

\-----

 

"Wir gehen!" Natsumi said happily, as she boarded the plane. Natsumi had been on international flights before, of course. She'd spent most of her formative years on a primitive little Island called Banaba, which was about a thousand miles from anywhere. In a lavish estate at the outskirts of the family's lucrative phosphorus mining operations. Her family only returned to Japan after a period of civil unrest.

She wasn't afraid of flying, but long hours cooped up in a cabin for hours made her a bit claustrophobic. Fortunately, she and her brothers had a trick for this. They were unusually tall for their ages, usually travelled alone together, and were mildly allergic to alcohol, as many Asians were. Which wasn't so bad since it just made them redfaced and silly. They would order a strong drink as soon as they were on the plane, finish it in one strong swallow, and then lapse into a deep sleep for most of duration of the flight.

Of course, their overprotective mother knew nothing of this trick. Had she the slightest inkling that her unaccompanied minors were putting themselves into self-induced comas just to avoid the tedium of air-travel, she'd probably report them for terrorism, just to get them put on a no-fly list. 

Natsumi just assumed that she would do the same for this trip, but then she saw on the list of rules. Drinking was forbidden in any and all circumstances. Damn. 

Not that she was going to let that stop her. There was a slight chance, claustrophobia might set off her asthma, but telling Ms. Hakaito that would only get her sent home. 

She'd just have to get extra sneaky...

\-----

Once they were all in line for the gate it only took a minute before they were up to where the attendants were accepting people's boarding passes. Akane handed the woman it, practically destroying the paper as she forced it into her hands, a bit too eagerly.

Instead of waiting for the other girls to get through the gate Akane ran off, her footsteps echoing off the walls of the walkway to the plane. As quickly as she had started to run Akane came to a sliding stop and walked up to a window she'd come across. Pressing her nose to the glass she looked out at the A330 that they'd be spending the next 15 hours of their life on. Her first time flying, Akane was in awe of just how large the plane seemed now that she was close to it. All the times she'd seen them flying in the sky they had always seemed soo small. Now though it seemed like some great old dragon, ready to take them all away.

Akane knew exactly where Natsumi and herself were sitting; originally they'd been nowhere near one another but two of the girls had managed to be placed together. With a lot of begging, crying and one particularly uncomfortable date with some guy who was the elder brother of the girl she'd managed to get them to agree to trade seets with them. Row 13, seats A and C. There wasn't a seat B and it made no sense to her that they would just skip that letter, and yet they had.

Only now did she look back as she waited to see just where the rest of the girls were, it was taking all of her might to stop here and wait for them. 

\-----

Natsumi followed after Akane, handing the woman her boarding pass and shouldering her backpack. Her group was chattering with excitement. 

She smiled as her friend stared out the window at the plane. She would want the window seat, which was perfect, since Natsumi wanted to sit on the aisle. She'd flown often enough that the novelty of gazing down through the clouds had passed long ago. But she remembered those first few flights as a small girl, when nobody could pry her away from the view. Natsumi was certain she had the aisle seat already, but if not, she hoped it wouldn't take much to encourage Akane to trade.

They made their way through the tube connecting the terminal to the plane. This was really happening. The were going to spent a year in Europe. Natsumi couldn't wait to see all the new sights, to meet all these new people. To create memories what would last a lifetime.

\-----

When Akane noticed Natsumi coming up to her she ran over to her grabbing her hand and practically dragging the taller girl with her to the large window. "Natsumi! Kannst du glauben, wie groß es ist?" Akane asked looking back her eyes wide at the size of it. Even as people passed them by Akane continued to marvel at the plane. "Glaubst du, wir werden die Kurve der Erde sehen können?" Just as she was asking this she felt a tap on her shoulder, looking back she saw their chaperone standing there, arms crossed as she stared them down. "Sich bewegen, Mädchen." The woman said standing there waiting for them to get moving again. Akane couldn't help but give out a little meep before hurrying onto the plane.

Once they were finally at their seats Akane put her small bag into the over head storage after retrieving a pair of earbuds, single small book and mp3 player from it. "Welchen Platz möchtest du?" She asked the entire time her eyes glued to the window seat. "Du können den Fensterplatz haben, wenn du wollen. Ich habe nichts dagegen." The entire time her eyes betraying her true desire.

She was just so excited that she wasn't sure how she was even going to be able to sit down much less sleep at any point on this flight, it was 15 hours in the air sure, with a two hour layover on top of that. With how she felt at this moment she wasn't sure if she would ever need sleep again, or at the very least for the entire year she was finally in Europe.


	2. On the plane

Natsumi followed her friend onto the plane, weaving around people cluttering the aisles while hoisting up their bags, and giggling when Akane offered her the window seat. "Danke, aber ich woll diese Platz haben."

Once they were settled, Natsumi stowed her backpack under the seat in front of her, and reached into the seat-back pouch. Inside was a laminated fold out of emergency procedures, and an even more important laminated document. The drink menu.

Normally, Natsumi could make do with a glass of white wine. The only people who could inform against her were her brothers, who were in no position to report anything back to Mother after they'd gulped down their beers. This flight hosted at least one or two busybodies Natsumi knew would be only too happy to inform against her to Ms. Hakaito. Especially, if it meant it would get her into trouble.

She took advantage of the bustle of passengers stowing their carry-on into the overhead bins to tuck the drink menu into the on-flight magazine, so it would like she was perusing the Sky Mall rather than pondering the vividly colored photos of the in-flight cocktails available for purchase, with their captions in both German and Japanese.

Natsumi looked around to see where Ms. Hakaito was situated. With any luck she would be near the front and unable to watch her order her drink. No. She was three rows behind them. Also on the aisle. With a clear view of each and every one of the students in her charge.

Of course she was. It occurred to Natsumi at once that was by design. To keep her students from pulling tricks just like the one she was about to pull off.

Hmmm...

\-----

Plopping down into her seat Akane once again had her face pressed to the glass of the window examining the busy work that was happening on the tarmac. Each of them were going about their work with a purpose, it reminded her of a busy ant mound. After watching them for a bit she turned her attention to the area around her seat, from the switches she had above her head to the collection of fliers in the seat back pocket in front of her.

Catching Natsumi intently studying her magazine. "Was ist da?" She asked as she leaned over the arm rest trying to get a better view of just what Natsumi was reading. She spotted the drink list in the sky mall before looking up at the girl. "Natsumi..." She said, her tone playful. "Was be...kommst du?" She asked as she looked back to the list of drinks. She'd only ever had a mouthful of wine a handful of times in the past always at some party with her mother keeping careful watch of just how much she had consumed.

\-----

Natsumi smiled as Akane watched the workers and trucks on the tarmac, and fiddled with the lights and the vents above them. It all held such wonder for the smaller girl, and made it all seem new again.

"Was ist da?" Akane spotted the drink menu in her magazine. Natsumi didn't bother to hide it from her. She knew Akane could be trusted... and if she couldn't? Natsumi might as well get off the plane now and head home, since she couldn't see herself navigating a foreign country together without that trust.

"Nichts," Natsumi said slyly, then leaned closer. "Es ist ein..." she leafed through her book. "Heilmittel." She leaned closer to whisper. "Fur mein Asthma...Sssh."

It was perfectly true. Natsumi didn't really enjoy alcohol, even though a half a glass of wine was enough to set the room spinning in a rather delightful manner. She'd have to assume it was the same with stronger spirits, though she'd never tried them.

But how to order?

"Was be...kommst du?"

Natsumi had already decided what she wanted. "Der Wodka-Orange." she mouthed (aka Ein Screwdriver) It should look just like orange juice to Ms. Hakaito's critical eye, and her older brother once told her that people can't smell vodka on your breath they way they can with most alcohol. The trouble was how to order it without the teacher or one of her pet busybodies noticing. She could wink and tap on the picture when she gave the flight attendant her drink order, but that might not be enough of a clue.

If only she had something to write with. Natsumi glance forlornly at the purse at her feet. She came so unprepared for this flight. She was tempted to ask Akane if she had a pen or pencil, but wouldn't. If Natsumi got caught, she would get into a lot of trouble, and she didn't want to drag her best friend into that, not even as an unwitting accomplice.

Then she glanced across the aisle where one of the other girls, a blonde informant, had her makeup wands set out and was fixing up her face. Natsumi eyed an a eyeliner pencil, kohl black, tantalizing close, and perfectly suited for what she had in mind.

\-----

Looking at the sheet of drinks Akane couldn't help but shake her head. "Nein, nein, nein." She said as she plucked the entire skymall magazine out of Natsumi's hands drink list and all. Quickly she scanned over it. "Du bist eine Dame, Natsumi, du musst ein passenderes Getränk auswählen." Akane said still hunting for the right drink. "Wodka-o ist kein Dame." She said doing her best to keep her voice low before pointing decidedly at one drink. "Jetzt ist das etwas Schöneres für deine Schönheit. Ein Soi...xan....te Quin...ze" She stumbled a bit over the French name. Either way the contents looked good to her, Champaigne, Gin, and a whole lot of sugar. With a list like that, just how could it be bad?

 

In truth she'd never had anything harder than a glass of wine or some home made spritzer, which if she knew exactly what it was would have realized that it was much weaker than the wine. "Aber wie...?" She asked just then, nodding her head to the back of the plane where she figured the chaperone was sitting, even if she couldn't actually see her from where she was sitting.

Carefully she handed back the magazine to Natsumi before looking back up at the girl and seeing her gaze firmly planted on the eyeliner pencil.

Without even so much as a word to Natsumi, Akane got up and squeezed out into the aisle just after some straggler passed by his certainly oversided carry on in hand. "Oh, Risa! Ich liebe dein Kosmetik heute!" Giving out a delighted little squeel as she spoke. "Du bist so schlau. Ich beinahe beabstandet und packte alles in meine Karo-Tasche!" Which was mostly true, she had placed her favourite makeup in her checked luggage, but mostly just hadn't wanted to do much more than some foundation that morning. "Kannst du mir helfen? Du weißt, wie heiße Piloten alle sind." She pleaded, now clasping her hands together. All the while never knowing how lucky she was that neither of them had seen what the shockingly overweight pilot and co-pilot looked like.

Letting out a long sigh Risa looked up at Akane as she stood in the aisle. "Meine Güte. Gut können du es leihen." After a moment Risa had placed everything back into the minaudière she'd gotten some time ago from her mother. Carefully she took the enamiled case from her and couldn't help but spend a few moment admiring the art on it before she found her voice again. "Oh du bist der beste Risa! Ich sende alle netten europäischen Männer, die ich in deiner Richtung treffe."

Turning Akane caught the eye of a flight attenant that had been glaring at her for an amount of time that Akane could only guess at. She opened her mouth to appologize but that only caused the woman to squint even more at her. Leaving her only the option of retreating to her seat.

Sliding in to it, she sat back down and help up the minaudière that contained the eyeliner pencil that Natsumi had been staring at so intently. "Wo waren wir?" She asked a smile on her lips, only being so bold since Risa had already turned her attention to the screen implanted into the back of the seat she was facing.

\-----

Natsumi smirked as Akane selected a more suitable drink for her. She'd been reluctant to involve her friend in this heist. If Natsumi got caught, she would get into a lot of trouble. Not "Stay in the room while the rest of us go sightseeing" trouble. More like "Get to Vienna to fetch your juvenile delinquent daughter" trouble. Natsumi knew her family well enough that they'd laugh about this later, with that later occurring somewhere between the airport and the apartment on the car ride home. Akane had been looking forward to this trip for so long. She doubted there would be any laughter in the Mori car.

Still, she did raise an interesting point. Der Screwdriver wasn't a very ladylike drink. She could practically smell the fumes coming off of Akane's selection, but there must be a vodka drink that was a bit cuter. Had she any experience in these matters, she would have got with a Cuba Libre, but instead her eye settled on a pink concoction called "Das Woo Woo". Cranberry juice with vodka and peach Schnapps Perfect.

Now to the matter of the pencil. She knew that snitch wouldn't let her near her makeup. For one thing, Natsumi didn't wear any. (Her overprotective family wouldn't let her, except on formal occasions.) And even if she did, Risa the Rat would be the last person she'd ask.

Fortunately, Akane was one step ahead of her. "...Kannst du mir helfen? Du weißt, wie heiße Piloten alle sind..." Natsumi had to stifle a giggle. Not only for her friend's heroism and audacity, but also because heiße probably didn't mean exact what Akane thought it did in that context.

To Natsumi surprise, that actually worked. Though Risa kept peering at Natsumi out of the corner of her eye to make sure she kept her paws off her cosmetics.

Natsumi half rose in her seat and stared across the aisle, out the window. "Is dat mein bruder?"

While both girls were pulled like magnets to the window, Natsumi grabbed the pencil. She threw open the sky mall and circled the cute little picture of Das Woo Woo. Then drew hearts, arrows, and a "Ja! Danke!" before handing the pencil over to Akane.

\-----

When Natsumi said her brother had been outside of the plane's window she couldn't help but feel a shot to her gut from that, even if she knew there was no way he would be out there. Akane smiled at the girlish hearts that Natsumi had placed all around her desired drink.

She took the pencil back from Natsumi, before quickly giving it a quick sharpening before using the mirror to apply it. As she worked on her face an announcement came over the PA system, but it was in English so she ignored it. She spoke some English, everyone had to take it but even still she was much more comfortable talking in German. From outside her window she could hear the the engines spinning up and down as the pilots put them through their paces.

As Akane looked back over to Natsumi she clicked the minaudière closed, a little bit of eye liner on, along with a new shade of lipstick she though looked cute before putting it on, but now that she could look at herself in a mirror made her lips darker than she honestly liked. "Es ist so gemein von dir, mit ihren Herzen so zu spielen." Akane teased before pressing her lips together a bit more, feeling the lipstick wasn't quite evenly spread.

\-----

"Ihren Herzen und ihren Kosmetik," Natsumi said with a wink. She didn't feel bad for Risa at all. If the nasty little blonde wanted a shot at dating Seijuro, maybe she should try being nicer to his twin sister.

Still, her makeup looked really cute on Akane. But everything looked cute on Akane. She was cuteness personified. It was a testament to Akane's good nature and patience that she was able to get along so well with both Natsumi and Risa, when the two were completely incapable of getting along with each other.

When she was finished, Natsumi took the bag and handed it over to Risa. "Vielen Dank."

Risa took the bag without comment and surveyed Natsumi's face to ensure she hadn't mooched any of her makeup without her permission. Natsumi gave her a "I'm cuter than you without it" shrug and belted herself into her seat for the takeoff announcement and emergency instructions. It was so routine to her by then that she didn't pay much attention to Benedikt the flight attendant's demonstration, except to confirm he was young and cute. Even so, the illicit thrill of her upcoming drink order was the only thing that piqued her interest.

As far as she was concerned it was as good as done. The drink menu was all marked and ready, and better still, Natsumi had given the pencil back to Risa, so if Ms. Hakaito happened to see it, she could claim it was already like that, and not her doing, and she was only using it as a bookmark. She couldn't see how this could possibly go wrong.

\-----

Even as Natsumi handed the case back Akane had her nose buried in the safety manual following along with every word that was being said. Fretfully glancing around the cabin attempting to spot every door as they were mentioned, becoming distressed when the ones she couldn't see were mentioned.

 

She would periodically glance over at Natsumi who was clearly zoned out from everything that was being said. Having heard this a number of times that she simply couldn't imagine.

Finally the presentation was over and Akane felt well and totally freaked out at what was about to happen. As the plane started to taxi she couldn't help but let out a little cry and quickly stifled it by slamming her hands over her mouth. Everyone else was calm, but she could feel her shoulders shaking, either with fear or excitement. She couldn't be sure which.

When the plane started picking up speed and lift into the air, Akane knew it was fear that was sitting in the pit of her stomach. She grabbed Natsumi's arm, burying her face into the girl's shoulder even as the force of the plane forced her back into the seat. When the noise from the landing gear started to retract she couldn't help but whimper, holding onto Natsumi's arm for dear life.

\-----

The plane was lifting off. It started slow then picked up speed until Natsumi felt herself pulled back to her seat like a magnet. Natsumi held her breath a little if anything were to go wrong, odds are, it would go wrong before liftoff. While the plane was still on the ground. But as the bumping of the runway gave way to the frictionless slope of air travel, Natsumi breathed a sigh of relief.

The whole time Akane was pinned to Natsumi's arm in terror.

She soothed the smaller girl's hair like she was a little child. "Nichts ist los. Fliegen ist sicher. Flugzeuge fast niemals--" she disengaged to check her book. "...abstürzen. Und wenn sie alle leben lebt."

She gave her friend a reassuring hug.

"Es ist nicht wie die Filme. Das Flugzeug kann alles seine Motoren verlieren und noch fliegen. Das Flugzeug kann seine Treibstoff verlieren und noch fliegen."

Of course if the plane lost a wing, they were all dead, but there was no way she was bringing that up. Wings didn't fall off airplanes, but try telling that to someone with a phobia against flying.

The seatbelt light went off and announcement came on, and the other passengers unbelted themselves, but Natsumi kept hers fastened. Turbulence was no joke. She'd get up to move around to visit the sky oasis, bathroom, and to help her circulation, but as long as she was seated,there was no reason not to keep it fastened.

At long last, she saw Benedikt the flight attendant, making his way down the aisle to offer them their choice of sky bentos to be served as dinner an hour into the flight.

"Schweinekotelett, bitte," Natsumi said. Then darted a glance back at Risa and Ms. Hakaito.

"Mit ein Preiselbeersaft," she added with a wink, allowing the magazine to fall up and pointed. "Machst es gut!"

Benedikt gave her a nod and a knowing smile.

\-----

As the plane levelled out Akane could feel herself relaxing and being able to breath again. She’d never been good with roller-coasters and this had been worse than any she had ever been on.

Letting go of Natsumi’s arm she was able to relax back into her chair and look at the meal menu. It was sooner than she though but Natsumi was already being slick and ordering her meal and drink. “Oh! Ähm, ich werde das, äh, Koreanische Bento haben.“ She said quickly, practically trapping over her own words simply choosing the meal on the page she had been looking at when it was her turn.

She let out a long sigh now that Benedikt was moved on from them. She looked out of her window and let out a gasp before grabbing Natsumi‘s arm and pulling the other girl close to her, and towards the plane‘s window. “Oh mein Gott! Natsumi! Es ist so schön!” She said as she watched the soft white clouds from above, with only sparse holes showing the earth below. A cityscape with each glimpse of it getting more and more green as they give way to suburbs and then farms and finally woods and meadows. “Hast du jemals etwas so Wunderbares gesehen?” Akane asked as she watched the wonders she could see, her eyes wide.

\----

 

It certainly was beautiful. A blanket of fluffy pure white cloud, seemingly near enough to touch, with only sun and blue sky above it. Natsumi had seen it a lot, and it never grew old, but now she was seeing it with her best friend, and it was all new to Akane.

For a long while they just looked out the window, chatting happily, making plans. She almost didn't look away when she heard Benedikt coming with the dinner cart.

When she did, her heart sank.

The bentos was all stacked up, in their airplane safe plastic boxes. But what made Natsumi's eyes go wide were the drinks, which Benedikt and his assistant handed out along with the food. They all looked normal, except for one. A pink drink on ice, with a slice of orange and a swivel stick topped with a little airplane skewered through a maraschino cherry.

Natsumi sank down in her seat.  As if she could duck and Benedict would walk right past her.  She didn't have to ask who that was for.  It looked a lot like the picture on the drink menu.  Except that once was in a highly-impractical-for-airtravel highball glass which made her think it was just a serving suggestion.  Like how the glamorous photos on the frozen curry entrees looked nothing like the blob of glop inside.

She sat there, frozen, trying to think of how to refuse the drink before Ms. Hakaito noticed it, but she nothing but a weak mewl came out as Benedikt gave Natsumi and Akane their bentos and placed a square of paper napkin on her tray table and the drink on top of it.

"Bitteschön, Fräulein," he said with a wink. "Ein *besonderer* Saft für die junge Dame."

Damnit Benedikt, serving booze to a minor like that. Then again Natsumi was a head taller than most of the girls. Benedikt might have mistaken her for a teacher's assistant. Natsumi could do nothing but pay her trinkgeld.  She was still immobile as he went to serve the others, until Risa the Rat stopped gaping long enough to turn in her seat.

"Frau Hakaito!  Natsumi bestellte Alkohol!"

Ms. Hakaito was out of her seat in an instant.  Storming toward Natsumi with her hands on her hips and a murderous look in her eyes.

All Natsumi could think to do was get rid of the evidence.  She brought the drink to her mouth and gulped down about half of it before Ms. Hakaito pried it out of her hands.

"Was ist das!" she shouted at the now contrite Natsumi.

"Preiselbeersaft," Natsumi said softly as she felt a burning in the back of her throat.

"Warum gibt es Dekorationen in deinem Preiselbeersaft?"

Natsumi tried to look innocent.  "Benedikt hatte ein Auge auf mich?"

"Was ist bei dem trinken?"

"Preiselbeersaft."

"Und?"

"Obst?"

"Und?"

"Eis"

"UND?"

"Nichts."

Ms. Hakaito sniffed the drink.  Her frown widened before she took a sip from the other side of the glass.  "Du sagt es ist Nichts!  Es...ist...Groß Gott, das ist lecker."  She took another sip and fought the corners of her mouth as they crept up.  "Ja.  Ist es nichts aber saft. I woll ein anderer holt dich."

Risa's jaw dropped as Ms. Hakaito walked right past her sipping as she walked to find Benedikt to get Natsumi a cup of plain juice.  

"Es ist saft.  Was geht dich das an," the teacher said to the blonde in passing.

Natsumi chuckled.  Seemed someone needed that drink more than she did.

\-----

As the drama unfolded beside her Akane could only cover her mouth. First at horror that Risa had decided to out Natsumi, but then as the other girl did her best to destroy the evedence to keep herself from imitating so many western teen movies she'd seen and starting to chant "chug chug chug" but once Ms. Hakaito was standing over them all that Akane wanted to do was sink through her seat and further until she was outsite of the plane, and far away from this. 

Then a turn that she truly hadn't expected to happen came. Ms. Hakaito simply walked off with Natsumi's drink. Her hands fell from her face, her mouth agape as she looked at Natsumi not sure what to say. She'd been ready to say that Natsumi was just covering for her, and to throw herself on the rather of the woman. She doubted that she'd be sent home after one infraction like that, even after her parents found out. 

But now all she could do was look at Natsumi, wonder in her eyes at how easily they had gotten off, a few euros to pay for the drink and nothing else? The only better outcome would have been getting to taste the drink that Natsumi had picked for herself.

After the excitement, Akane found herself too scared to look back at where Ms. Hakaito was seated. As she turned t o look at Natsumi to say something to her, she happened to catch the eye of Hibiki, another of the girls on the trip and seated beside Risa. Akane gave a little wave to the girl and she return it in kind, even if it was clear already that her attention was with whatever anecdote Risa was taking great pleasure in retelling. 

Some time later Akane found herself needing to use the facilities further back in the plane. In truth she'd been needing to do so for a while at that point but her fear of getting that close to Ms. Hakaito. She sighed to herself, mother nature was such a cruel mistress. Slipping out of her seat and into the aisle Akane walked back towards the rear. Her legs feeling a bit rubbery, especially when her mind returned to the fact that the entire plane, and thus she, was only held up by a cushion of air. She spotted Ai, the girl who had dragged her over to group at the airport, as she walked. The girl was reading a book with a blue spine, as she moved to the next page of the story Akane caught a glimpse of the cover that had a pair of shirtless men on it their hands in a stern grip. It was only then that Akane noticed the faint blush in Ai's cheeks. 

It was another couple of rows when Akane passed Ms. Hakaito was wrapped up in a blanket as she layed passed out. Her food tray was still down and covered in a number of small bottles of different colours. All of them were empty, or only had a token amount remaining.


	3. Brave New World

Natsumi stood at the baggage carousel keeping an eye out for her bags.  They were easy to spot.  The Gingas traveled enough to know not to to use the standard black suitcase, so Natsumi's were burgandy with a gold vine pattern.  She could spot as soon as they dropped onto the circular conveyer belt.

She was sure she brought a lot more luggage than anyone, if the conversations on the plane about upcoming shopping trips  were any indication.  Natsumi would have liked to get a new wardrobe in Europe too, but her mother made her pack for every contingency.   (Speaking of which...she unzipped one of the smaller bags, grabbed an inhaler and put it in her purse.)  The planning was amusing to listen to.  She was actually a little glad her drink got confiscated when it did.  She'd been just buzzed enough to forget how she was crammed into an airless cabin, but not so drowsy that she couldn't chat with Akane and the other girls about their upcoming adventures.

"Welche taschen sind deine?" she asked Akane, so she could keep an eye out for her bags as well

\-----

Standing on her toes Akane held her hand as a brim to block the imagined glare of the baggage claim are. While all the other girls had their bags come out in the first few minutes of them being there. Akane's still had yet to be seen. "Nein, Ich sehe sie nicht." She gave a little hop with that, in a fruitless attempt to spot them. "Ich werde an die Theke fragen" Akane said before running off to talk with one of the women standing at an information desk not far from the carousel.

The conversation didn't last long, the woman waved her hand over the small area. "Das ist alles was wir haben." Akane couldn't help but furl her brow at this. Finally she gave out a sigh. "Danke." She said before returning to the ever thinning number bags as people spotted their own.

Akane ran up and down the length of the carousel. She was getting nervous, she only had her small bag right now. A part of her knew everything would be alright in the end, she still couldn't see her continuing to wear the same clothes she'd spent the last 22 hours in. She had known she'd get some new clothes and could hear the others talking about going shopping soon that was going to be later this week, not before they even left the airport.

\-----

Natsumi wheeled her tower of luggage and walked with Akane to talk to the officials to lend her support.  Natsumi knew what it was like to have the airline lose her luggage, and leaving an airport without your belongings was never pleasant.  (Like the time she had to wait three days to get back a wet bathing suit sealed in a Ziploc bag, which miraculously seemed ok after all that.)  

When Akane's luggage failed to materialize, Natsumi felt utterly dismayed.  But she didn't feel too bad about overpacking.  She'd have plenty of things to lend Akane until they had a chance to sort this out.  Natsumi was taller than her friend, but in terms of sizes, they shouldn't be too far off.  (Natsumi hoped)

"Sei froh, dass du nicht mit Jungs bist. Du musst ihre Unterwäsche ausleihen," Natsumi said from experience.

 

She glanced back at their chaperone, wincing even in the dim light of the airport.  She probably had a huge headache.  Natsumi looked back over her shoulder at the carousel, hoping the woman was wrong and another bag would drop down unexpectedly, but the belt was now empty and nearly everyone but their group were filing off through customs.

"Sie machen das oft. Sie legen die Tasche auf das falsche Flugzeug.  Sie werden sie anrufen, wenn sie es finden."

It was true.  Chances are the bag would turn up in a day or two, but she hoped Akane hadn't packed anything irreplaceable. A laptop that hadn't been backup up, family jewelry, a diary, sheet music with compositions she'd been working on... 

\----- 

 As Natsumi said that the bag might be on a different plane Akane let out a pained moan. Her mind kept looping back to how long she had been in her clothes. She kept moving, knowing that the second she stopped she would very likely fall asleep. She looked up at one of the countless clocks placed up in the airport it read 22:12. She stopped suddenly to count on her fingers. 'Es ist 04.12 Uhr zurück nach Hause.' She thought to herself while staring at her fingers. 'Warten Sie, das ist nicht richtig.' She counted once more, and came up with a different number this time. 'Es ist 05.12, oh mein Gott.' She whined inside of her head at this realization, wanting to be curled up in a bed somewhere.

She was getting to the point where she wasn't sure if she even cared if she found it. She kept her eyes on the slowly moving bags, though she was catching herself more and more casting long glancing at seats that looked ever more comfortable.  

Turning towards Natsumi, Akane opened her mouth to say that she was ready to call it, and just declare her suitcase a lost cost. Her mouth just hung open, her eyes locked on a point behind Natsumi. There was a pile of bags on a cart, all just sitting there. They looked like they had been lost and abandoned by their owners. How Akane wondered had she missed that. She didn't say another word, brushing past Natsumi as she raced to the bags. Quickly she went to work, pulling bags off of the pile. "Nein, nein, nein." She said as she checked bag after bag.

 Nearly half way through the collected bags Akane gave out a gasp, and pushed a couple more out of the way. There was her rather small hard shelled suitcase, simply sitting there. She grabbed at the tag on it, and read it, "Name: Akane Mori." She sighed, it was here all the time. A worker must have made a mistake taking off old bags just as they were all getting off of the plane, thinking it was a bag that had been there too long. Losing all of her strength she collapsed onto her bag, hugging the stupid thing, relieved to have it finally back.

\----- 

Natsumi could have wept with relief when Akane's bag turned up.  On a cart of all places.  She was glad the attendant wasn't there, since Natsumi couldn't be certain she would have beaten him or her with her purse for scaring Akane like that.

The group made their way, bleary eyed, toward customs.  No wonder.  Despite the excitement of arriving in a foreign land, it was 5 am back home, and the group had gotten little to no sleep.  As they stood at the end of the line, Natsumi took out her phone, planning check in with her mother while she waited.  She almost didn't when she realized the ungodly hour, but she vaguely remembered her family saying they wanted her to call to let them know she arrived safely.  So if she woke everyone in the place, it was on them.

The phone rang three times before her mother picked up.

"Oh.  Natsumi?  So I guess this means you *are* alive."

 Natsumi shivered.  Her mother's voice was calm.  The way a canary might calmly die in a coal mine before people ran screaming.

"Yes.  Our plane just landed."

"No.  Your plane landed twenty minutes ago.  Natsumi Anne Ginga.  You promised us not once, but five times you would call the moment you arrived at the airport."

Oh, crap.  She did.  Didn't she?

"I'm sorry Mom.  I-I didn't realize you were being literal and there was a bit of a crisis with the luggage--"

"Natsumi Anne Ginga.  I trusted you.  You said you were old enough to take a trip with your little friend and I believed you--"

"No you didn't!" Natsumi scoffed and then clapped a hand over her mouth.  This was no time for backtalk.

"Natsumi, I was scared to death, when your plane landed and you didn't call me."

"I'm sorry, Mom.  It's been a long flight and I simply forgot--Wait a minute!  How do you know I waited 20 minutes to call you!  For all you know the flight was delayed!"

"Your older brother downloaded an app on my phone to allow me to track your flight."  Of course he would.  "I thought may you been hurt, or abducted, or you were having an asthma attack and you forgot to pack your inhaler."

"Ha!  Ha! HAHAHA!" Natsumi laughed really loud to make her mother think she would never do something as stupid as forget to pack her inhaler.  The others in her group were staring at her.  If she had any sense of decorum she would kept her voice demure and postponed this conversation until she had some privacy.  But Natsumi was highly strung and downplaying her mother's concerns seemed so disrespectful it was something she would never consider doing.

"Excuse me, your twin keeps trying to grab the phone."

"Oh, good.  Put him on."  At least she knew Seijuro wasn't freaking out.  He was the mellow twin.  Seijuro never freaked out about anything.

"One second."  She heard the phone change hands, and a muffled voice informing her mother he was going to take this in the other room.

Natsumi brightened at the sound of her brother's voice.  Until a door closed and she heard her brother's petulant tone.  "Do you have any idea what you've just put our mother through?"

"No?"  Now Natsumi was worried.  Seijuro sounded like he was ten.  Seijuro whining like he was ten was the closest he ever came to freaking out.

"Mom wanted to watch your flight, so Fiore downloaded an app for her that shows a little plane icon over a map she could see where you are at any given time."

Natsumi smiled.  "Aw.  That's cute."

"No. It's not.  It's really not.  She's been glued to the thing for fourteen hours.  She hasn't taken her eyes off it since you left...When the plane got to the airport she called us over to watch you land...The app doesn't tell you this, but when the plane circles to make a landing, the icon goes into a tailspin and then disappears from the map...Natsumi...she thought you died...*I* thought you died.  The only person who thought you were still alive was Fiore.  He said you were probably fine and was the only one with the presence of mind to call the airport to make sure your flight had landed safely."

"Well good for Fiore. You two should listen to him more."

"Maybe we would have...if you called when you promised you would."

"Oh."

"Oh is right.  I can't even deal with you right now.  Put me on the phone with your friend. Akane."

\-----

As the group got to the queue for customs she was glad to stand her suitcase up and use it as a seat. As she sat there she could feel the sleep forming in her eyes to the point of her needing to constantly wipe it away. As Natsumi started talking on her phone Akane looked up at her for a moment not sure if she was being spoken to or not. She let her gaze wonder away from Natsumi and instead to the mostly empty airport, the queue they were in was long not because there were that many people for the size of the airport but customs was mostly shuttered at the moment.

She always hated it when people listened in to her phone calls and always did her best to not listen in on them. Today that was easier than normal, in her tired state her mind simply wanted to wonder off to where ever she could find a soft pillow.

Suddenly there was a slight tap on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Natsumi handing her, her own phone. She took the phone, but her fingers fumbled and her stomach hit the floor as it became air born. Thankfully unlike how her stomach felt she somehow managed to catch it in mid air before any harm could come to it.

Finally once her heart stopped pounding in her ears she placed the cell phone to her head. "Hallo?" She said honestly not entirely sure just whom she would be talking with.

"Hey there little snail." The voice came over the phone and Akane could feel her back go stiff as she suddenly sat up straight. She threw a glance over at Natsumi, almost asking why she hadn't been given any warning. Her brother always seemed to like giving her weird nick names whenever Natsumi couldn't hear him.

"Um, hi Seijuro. What's up?" She asked turning her body, still sitting on her suitcase, so she was angled away from everyone else in the group, even if they could hear every word.

"Oh you know, just wanting to see if I still have a sister." Akane chuckled a bit at this as she glanced back to where Natsumi was standing. "Yeah we're both fine. We're just in the line for customs right now." Akane smile at this, she wondered if this was what having a brother was normally like. She was like Natsumi in that she had two elder brothers, but different in their ages. Her eldest brother was 15 when she was born, and the other was still a staggering 12 years. She'd idolized them when she was young but had them both fade from her life seemingly on the very day they turned 18, one joined the JMSDF while the other travelled to the Americas to be a trader, he'd landed in Chili at first, now he was in Victoria or some other port city in the north of the continent.

"Oh awesome, are you ladies going to party the night away?" He asked, and Akane couldn't detect any sarcasm in his voice.

"Heh, oh you know it." She joked figuring she had just missed it. She idly ran her free hand through her hair, bringing it over her shoulder.

Akane yawned just then, unable to stop herself.

"How long do you think it will be before you get to your new place?"

Akane could only groan at the idea, it would still take them a while to drive there. "Uh, maybe an hour if we're lucky, probably two." She admitted feeling ever more tired as she said it. By that point she will have been up for more than a full day.

Natsumi glanced over, but was relieved to see Akane responding casually to the conversation between yawns and making an effort to stay awake.  She was certain if Seijuro had scared her half to death, she'd bombard Akane with a litany of complaints, but Seijuro was a bigger person than she was.  

"Call me if you need anything," he said in a light-hearted manner. " I mean it, even if it's something as trivial as some guy hassling you or my sister. I'll fly over there if I have to."

"Anything?" Akane asked him in a small voice, pressing the phone against her ear. She could feel something moving deep down in her core as she thought about what he had said. If it had been Natsumi's mother or other brother the comment would have been a threat, but with him, it could be something more than that.

"Yeah, anything." Akane heard his voice despite the crackling. "Okay... you can call me if you ever want to talk, too." She managed to say back her voice small. "What was that?" His voice came back.

Akane's mind was spinning what had come over her, why would she say something like that. "No! No, it's nothing." She was floundering now. Her mind had gone blank, with no idea with just what she should do next. She looked back up at Natsumi who was still standing there, her eyes crying out for help as she let the line just hang with silence.

\-----

Natsumi saw Akane's "please save me expression" and took the phone from her.  Seijuro must have been working his magic on her friend.  Even the other girls in the group were blushing and drifting toward Akane, trying to catch the sound of his voice on the other end of the line.  As far as she knew she was the only girl who was immune.  After all, she was his sister, and they grew up on an island, in relative isolation, so she didn't realize until they got to Japan that he was considered better looking than a boy his age had any right to be.

"Feeling better?" she asked him.

"Much," he said.

"Is it Fiore's turn to berate me now?"

"No. He wasn't worried about you in the slightest, so he went back to bed."

"Good," Natsumi said.  "I'll call Mother when I get to the dorm.  I won't forget this time."

"Okay," he said simply, and hung up without saying goodbye.

Natsumi sighed and put the phone away.  The people around her seemed dead on their feet, but she wasn't tired in the slightest.  Travel energized her.  For the next three hours she'd be a ball of energy, taking in her surroundings, until she started to feel a little sleepy...then her head would sink into a pillow and she'd sleep like the dead for the next sixteen hours or so.  

Not that she'd have that luxury of sleeping in.  She wasn't looking forward to tomorrow morning's itinerary, whatever it was.

 


	4. The first 24

Looking down at the now empty suitcase on her bed, Akane wore a triumphant smile. Everything had been put away into her little room. As she stood there she wondered how many of the others were awake yet. If they were she didn't hear any of them, but that was hardly surprising. Right now only 10 girls were even in the dorms, throughout the day and into the next one the other 90 were all supposed to show up. Until that happened they didn't have much to do beyond unpack and get acclimated to the new time zone. Well nothing official that was.

She opened her door and poked her head out into the hallway. There was only silence there to meet her ears. Leaving her room she wondered around until she found the floor's common washroom. It thankfully clean, she'd read horror stories online about washrooms at even the best boarding schools. Looking at the various fixtures it was clear that many of them were old, probably older than she was, but at the same time they looked to be well maintained.

Turning the white marble tap it was a moment before the water started to flow. Without waiting she leaned forward and splashed the water onto her face.

With that Akane let out a sharp gasp. The water was freezing, but not something she was going to let beat her. She did it again, suppressing a gasp and rubbing her face. After a minute of this she looked up at herself in the mirror, her cheeks had taken on a nice rosy colour, even as she could feel the goosebumps on her arms.

Going back to her room she threw on one of the few outfits she'd brought with her. She checked herself once more in the mirror that was on already on the back of her door, stopping just before the peep hole. She grabbed her brush running it through her hair a couple of times before fidgeting with the hem of her yellow sundress and checking her white stockings for any runs. Finally she left the room making sure she had her keys to the building throwing them and the lanyard they were on around her neck, and wallet into some hidden pocket of her dress.

Going down the stairs from her floor she found herself on Natsumi's floor, where like on her own floor Natsumi was the only girl from their country. This was something that was clearly by design of the organizers, and if they had managed to get a five story building she is certain Ai and Risa would have been on different floors as well.

Once she came to Natsumi's door she gave it a couple of quick raps, before standing on the tips of her toes attempting to get a look through the peep hole despite that her height prevented her from even having the possibility of looking through it. "Natsumi!" She said doing her best quiet yell. "Bist du schon wach?" She said through to the door hoping for an answer.

\---

Natsumi batted the snooze button with her arm for the sixth time that morning.  She knew this would happen, so she'd set it for a half hour before she needed to get up.  She was almost awake now.

She pulled off the cover and rose from the bed, eyeing the accordion shaped radiator that lined the wall under her window.  The scene outside showed old buildings out of a fairytale.  Only this was all real.  That would take some getting used to, along with the bedding.  The european quilt was interesting to her, it felt like a down comforter in a giant pillowcase.  It took some getting used to but made sense, since you could remove the cover and toss it in the washing machine.  She'd have to send some back to her family.

She's barely gotten one foot on the floor when she heard a familiar knock. "Natsumi! Bist du schon wach?"

"Einen Moment, bitte", she said as she stepped into her slippers and plodded to the door.  She was still in her sleep shorts and pajama top and her thick, medium length hair stood out in all directions like a haystack, but Akane as no stranger to sleep-deprived-Natsumi.

She opened the door to her friend who looked well rested and sunny in her yellow dress.

"Kommst in meinem Zimmer," she said, and waddled away from the door and back to the bed, where she reached from the brush on the night table. 

\-----

Even though she had only just knocked Akane was already getting ready to knock again when she heard Natsumi's voice through the door asking for a moment. She waited there glancing down at the small silver watch on her wrist. After just a few moments the door opened with a rather disheveled Natsumi standing there. "Gutten Morgen!" She said with a smile practically dripping sunshine.

"Ah, danke." She said as she stepped into the room closing the door behind her. "Hast Du gut geschlafen?" Akane asked, fragrantly ignoring just how Natsumi looked with her disheveled hair.

"Hast du die Lehrerin gesehen?" Natsumi asked as she worked out the tangles. 

"Frau Hakaito?" Akane asked. "Nien... Soll ich haben?" She added on, their teacher having been one of the last things in her mind. "Order planen du etwas und Scouting-Bericht benötigt?" Akane asked teasing Natsumi.

Walking over to Natsumi's bed Akane plopped herself on it. Looking around the room Akane realized their two rooms were mirror images of one another. "Gehst du diesen Raum dekorieren?" She asked looking at all the empty walls.

\-----

Natsumi gave a noncommittal shrug once her hair was back in place.  The room did look pretty drab.  A standing mirror, and some Ikea-style gray bedroom furniture, but that was it.  Not even a closet, walk-in or otherwise.  The only thing that could be considered remotely decorative was a stuffed animal next to her pillow--a white rabbit in a red dress that her mother sewed for her when she was little.  

The room could certainly use some color.  And some sparkle.

She hadn't really noticed when she'd been up late, unpacking all her clothing and tucking it into drawers and armoires, she'd been too preoccupied with the room's lack of clothes hangers.  She would have thought the school would have provided those as standard issue to the students.  Especially the transfers.  She'd have to make a point of picking some up at the big box, department, or euro store while they went shopping for decor.

"Und dich? Hast du deine Zimmer schön machen?"

\-----

"Ah, ja." Giving a nod. "Ich habe es in ein Freenparadies verwandelt, komplett mit Wasserfall!" Akane joked knowing full well that her room was just as drab.

"Ein Wasserfall, eh?" Natsumi smiled.  "Das ist gut für Sommer."  Natsumi had looked the night before and didn't see an air conditioner. She hoped that was only because it never got hot enough here to need one. The window did open, though, so that was something. She raised the sill a bit to let the air in.  

As Natsumi puttered around the room Akane let herself fall over on the bed. She saw the white rabbit and picked it up, and examined it, turning it around wondering just where the tag was on it. "Wissen du, welche Gruppe letzte Nacht auftauchte? Ich hörte das Mädchen im Zimmer neben mir in einer gewissen Zeit letzte Nacht. Aber ich habe sie noch nicht gesehen." Akane said as she idly moved the small animal through the air as though it were hopping.

"Nein. Welche Gruppe ?" The halls had been eerily quiet all night while Natsumi was getting situated. She'd even ridden the elevator a few times to explore the common areas on the other levels. Maybe the locals were filling the rooms by floor?

As Natsumi asked which group Akane had to shrug her shoulders. "Keine Ahnung." She'd heard someone come in, but she hadn't seen the other girl yet, or maybe she wondered, if it had been Natsumi wondering around at some ungodly hour.

Natsumi washed up and went to the dresser and searched for an outfit that wouldn't require ironing.  After holding a few things in front of the mirror, she changed in a tight black skirt and a silky top in a green, yellow and orange floral pattern.  A bit dressy for sightseeing, she supposed, but she wasn't going to waste Akane's time with the travel iron, and she wasn't about to tour Vienna in crumpled clothing.

When it was clear that Natsumi had her clothes for the day picked out, Akane placed the doll back on the bed where she had found it, and fished in her pocket for her phone. Stepping beside Natsumi she wrapped her hand around her hips and pulled the two of them close. She held her phone out in front of the two of them on its side, as far as she could make her arm stretch. She flashed it a smile and leaned into Natsumi before the recorded sound of a camera shutter played, their image hanging on the screen. "Einer noch." She said, squeezing Natsumi a bit before the sound of the shutter played again.

"Wo gehen sie erst?"

Letting go of Natsumi, Akane walked over to the door and thought on just where they were going. "Hmm... Lass uns nur ein bisschen erforschen." She looked back at Natsumi. "Wir müssen doch unser Lager haben." She added on before opening the door, feeling a draft come into the room as she did from the hall way. "Nac dem Mittagessen sollten wir einkaufen gehen. Ich bin sicher, wir beide brauchen Dinge."

"Sehr gut," Natsumi said.

\-----

They signed out and walked through Vienna, in search of adventure.  People stared.  Maybe because the Austrian citizens weren't used to seeing Far Easterners, or maybe because they were cute.  It was impossible to tell.  The shops were lovely.  There was no other way to describe them.  Huge arched windows set into embossed walls, displaying baked goods, perfumes, scarves, clothing, stationery, chocolates, and marizan shaped and painted to look like whole fruit in miniature.  

As the two went from storefront to storefront, Akane was experiencing all of this through the screen of her phone, as she took photos of seeming everything. In particular she was trying to get photos of every cherubim she could find, which as it turned out seemed to be hidden everywhere in the architecture of the street. Periodically she would grab Natsumi and force her to pose in front of some trivial store front or water fountain.

There was real fruit as well, sold in wooden carts outside the shops.  Natsumi marvelled at the low prices, until she translated the prices from euros and even then she was shocked.  She was have to come back and by a watermelon to share with the other girls, since what was considered one of the finest delicacies in Japan could be had for a few coin here in Europe. All while Natsumi was marveling at how good it all looked.

As the two left those fruit carts Akane could feel a pang in her stomach as she realized just how hungry she was. She wondered just how long it had been since she had that Korean style dinner on the plane. Just then it was only a faint scent that her nose picked up, but it was strong enough to get her to look around. It took her a minute but she managed to spot its source. A small stand that was selling sweet and savoury crepes. She let out a cry of joy that was somewhat embarrassingly echoed by the cry of her stomach. "Natsumi!" She said as she grabbed her hand, tugging, and leading her towards the stand.

As the two of them stood there Akane read just what varieties they had. As she read the list of crepes they would make for her she honestly just wanted to order one of everything, two in some cases. Of course if she did that she figured she'd very quickly weigh a million kilos if not more. Even if she didn't in actuality she'd feel like it was true. "Ich möchte eine 'Schwarze Banane' und eine 'Goldene Erdbeere' bitte!" She said to the greying man who was working the brightly coloured, though somewhat lonely shop for the time of day it seemed to Akane. The man scratched his cleanly shaven chin as he thought about what she had said before replying. "Das sind sieben Euro, kleine Frau." He said, speaking softly though a bit slower than Akane felt was really appropriate. She took out her wallet and fiddled with it for a minute before fishing out a €20 note and handing it to him. Taking it from her, he went to his cash box and returned with a pair of €5 bills along with three €1 coins.

Suddenly Akane felt like she'd been hit with a tonne of bricks. She looked over at Natsumi, rather sheepishly. "Traurig..." She said, realizing in her excitement she'd just ordered something for the both of them without even stopping to ask what Natsumi would like. Behind her she could hear that sound of the crapes being made on the skillet. "Du kannst jederzeit was du willst. Mein behandeln natürlich!" She said, even as her own stomach piped up again, seemingly to object to her generosity. She went a little red just then as she looked down at her misbehaving tummy.

"Mädchen." Came a voice from behind them. Akane turned and saw the man there, holding the two crapes she had ordered. One was filled with bananas and whipped creme while drizzled with a glorious amount of dark chocolate, the other one was over flowing with strawberries and an amber hue that could have only come from a generous amount maple syrup. Akane glanced over to Natsumi wondering just which one she was going to pick.

Natsumi giggled as Akane waited for her to claim a crepe.  "Ah.  Ich dachte, du wolltest sie beide essen.  Ich würde dir sagen, dass es nicht gut ist, in einem neuen Land so viel zu essen." No sooner had the words escaped Natsumi's lips than Akane had puffed out her cheeks. She wanted to protest that, even if it was true that both her stomach and tongue wanted her to do just that.

It was true.  Natsumi had done enough traveling from her Island to civilization and back again to know that unfamiliar ingredients were going to sit in her belly like a rock for a couple of days.   Fortunately, crepes were a common street food in Japan, so she doubted they'd be moaning in agony tomorrow.  Natsumi selected the strawberry crepe, but that didn't stop her from stealing a slice of banana from Akane and licking the chocolate off her fingers before holding her crepe out to Akane so she might do the same.  

When Natsumi took a piece of Akane's virgin crape the smaller girl could only give out a sharp cry at the horror of this injustice. With the offer of Natsumi's crape was giving to her, a dangerous glint in her eye could be caught for a second before she leaned in and took a bite out of the crape. As she chewed she looked up at Natsumi, a smile on her lips as she felt the bliss of the crape flowing through her. She had a bit of maple syrup on her cheek that she either didn't notice or more likely was ignoring at the moment.

Natsumi tore off a corner of her own crepe and stuffed it into her mouth, luxuriating in the taste of strawberry and real maple syrup.  It was the most glorious thing ever. There were people seated at cafe tables nearby enjoying their food.  Or were, until Natsumi and Akane showed up. People were staring.  They looked disgusted and appalled, and some mothers covered their children's eyes with their hands to keep them from looking at the two Asian girls.  It was like they were walking around in their underwear.  Natsumi checked the back of her skirt to see if she had split a seam, and when she was sure she was fully clothed, she shrugged and plucked another slice of strawberry, eliciting shudders of revulsion from the people nearby.  

Even as Natsumi took notice of the people giving the pair of them looks Akane was clearly in her own crape filled world. Without even thinking about what others might think Akane looped her arm in Natsumi's and gave her a pit of a tug towards a fountain. "Gehen wir sitzen dort über" She said, nodding her head towards a fountain that was likely older than any person either of them had ever met.

Natsumi sat and stole another slice of banana from Akane.  The other people were making a point not to look at them, but fortunately Akane didn't seem to notice.  Natsumi figured it was probably because they were Asian, but this was just cold.  Then she stopped a couple of cute boys her age staring right at them.  One looked like the stereotypical Austrian, with yellow-blond hair in a crew-cut and very pale skin and blue eyes.  The other was the more typical Austrian, with brown hair with a more muscular build and glasses.  The blond said something to the brunet and they both rose and approached the fountain where the two girls sat.

Natsumi thought they were coming over to flirt, but the blond came right up to her and grabbed the napkin that came with her crepe, unrolling it to reveal a knife and fork. It was at this point that Akane gave a small jump, making it clear that she had only just then even noticed the two boys. She continued to munch on her mostly eaten crape as she watched the two.

"Entschuldigen Sie. Das ist eine Gabel," he said shoving the fork into one of Natsumi's hands.  "Und das ist ein Das ist ein Messer," folding the knife into her other hand.  "Dies sind, was Menschen verwenden, um Essen in den Mund zu setzen.  Nicht ihre Hände!"

Natsumi face flushed and she was about to ask him who the hell he thought he was, but then she looked around and saw everyone, even the smallest children, were using not only a fork, but also a knife to eat whatever was on their plate, as if they were in a formal restaurant.  Furthermore, they kept the knife in the same hand the whole time, instead of switching out the knife and fork like she did when she needed to cut a steak.  Her blush deepened. No wonder they seemed revolted by her snacking.

As Akane watched the interaction between Natsumi and the blond boy, she could feel her face going red and her shoulders slowly start to shake. It was all she could do to not crush the remainder of her crêpe in her small hands.

"Ich musse alles mit ein Messer essen?" Natsumi asked in a small voice.

Shooting a look of horror at Natsumi's reaction this boy. Akane found herself on her feet, even if neither of the other two had noticed.

"Nur wenn Sie vorgiben, menschlich zu sein," the blond said.

Natsumi felt a sinking feeling in her gut.  "Ich werde hier viel Mühe haben."

The blond cheeks colored at Natsumi's defeated tone and his voice softened.  "Dein Deutsch ist gut, auch wenn du wie ein Schwein isst."

"Wir sind Japaner. Wir sind nicht mit Messer und Gabeln aufgewachsen." Even before Natsumi had finished speaking those words Akane had inserted herself between the two, bumping her shoulder against his. It was just enough to cause him to stumble back, though Akane suspected that was caused far more by surprise than by any force she had imparted into him with her small size.

She glared at him for a moment before in three bites consuming the rest of her crêpe in just three bites. She managed to swallow the large mouthful of food, without choking even if it did bring tears to the corners of her eyes. To cap it off in an exagerated show she stuck each finger in her mouth one after another to lick each clean as though this was some utterly normal action for her.

Turning on her heel to face Natsumi. "Sollen wir gehen? Ich mag es nicht, es zu schlagen." She declared her voice obnoxiously loud. She did her best to smile at Natsumi, even if the only thing she had to smile about at that moment was the fact her voice had managed not to crack.

Natsumi didn't even bother to hide her laughter before she also stood and wolfed down the rest of her crêpe with her bare hands, and fished for the gooey slivers of strawberry and ate them with her fingers.  She was so glad her mother couldn't see her behaving like this.  She'd probably have a heart attack, but these two boys had it coming, making her lose face like that in a public forum.  Okay, the one boy, but the other tagged along and made no move to rein in his friend, which was almost worse, if you thought about it. He was now staring at the two girl with a red-faced, wide-eyed expression she couldn't tell was shock or admiration.  It hardly mattered.  They were leaving and they wouldn't be asking for their names or numbers.

Natsumi wadded up her paper plate and napkin and tossed it at the garbage bin, scoring a perfect bank shot.

"Wo gehen wir jetz?" she asked Akane.

Looking around Akane had her lips pressed tight. "Ähm, wir gehen auf diese Weise" She said, selecting a direction that won for two simple reasons, they hadn't come from that direction and she had already been.

It wasn't that far before they were around the corner and out of sight of all those people from before. Looking around at where they had found themselves Akane realized this was less of another road and more of an alley. Before Natsumi had noticed it she had pulled ahead of Akane. From behind her there was the sound of quickly ruffling fabric, and a small thud. When she looked back there was Akane with her legs splayed out under her. Her gaze was transitioning back and forth between her legs. She started poking each of them, it was clear she was trying to will them to move. Giving a little nervous laugh she looked up at Natsumi. "Heh... Das ist so seltsam, ich kann meine Beine nicht bewegen."

 The sight of Akane, lying on the ground sent Natsumi into a blinding panic, which was only exacerbated when Akane spoke and confirmed her worst fears.  A man in a police uniform was nearby and Natsumi ran to him, only to notice from his badge he was the transit police.  There was a transit police station right in front of her. She didn't trust her German at that point.

"Do you speak Japanese?"

He just stared at her.  Of course he didn't speak Japanese.

Words started tumbling from Natsumi's mouth almost without her willing them to.  "Sie müssen uns helfen! Meine Freundin, sie ist zusammengebrochen und kann ihre Beine nicht fühlen! Wir müssen so schnell wie möglich einen Krankenwagen rufen!"

It caught her a little off guard how quickly German came to her in her panic.

Even as Natsumi was in a full on panic behind her, Akane felt calm, almost as if she her mind was floating. She felt concerned about how her legs weren't responding when she tried to move them but that seemed just like some far away problem. Tilting her head as she looked at one of her splayed out legs she raised her hand and brought it down with a sharp smack. She winced at this, it stung more than she was expecting. After only a few moments she could already see the red discolouration through her stalkings.

The man glanced at Akane and got out his phone.  A few other men in similar uniforms, attracted by Natsumi's shouting no doubt, came rushing out and went over to Akane.  One bent to grab her arm. With her arm suddenly grabbed from a direction she hadn't been paying attention to Akane instinctively gave out a cry in surprise.

Natsumi pushed him away from Akane and could barely restrain herself from slapping and kicking him.

"Bewege sie nicht! Was stimmt nicht mit Sie!!"

A crowd gathered from the nearby cafe.

"Ich bin ein Arzt," a reassuring voice said.

No sooner had Natsumi's attention been taken by one man another had scooped Akane up in his arms. The movement had been so fluid it left Akane confused as to just how she had managed to go from the ground to a point in the air that was higher than she stood even in her highest heels. In his arms she felt more like a cat that had been unexpectedly plucked up.

When Natsumi turned and saw someone had lifted Akane, her face went red with fury. "Stop! Idiot!"  she shouted, though it was too late for that.  Whatever damage they were going to do to Akane's spinal column by moving her had already been done by now.

"Entschuldigen sie," The doctor pushed his way through the crowd to Akane, with a similar looking woman who might be his wife, colleague or possibly both.  "Ich bin ein Arzt," he repeated.  

He walked over to Akane, and parted her eyelids so he could inspect her pupils.  Then he turned to his companion. "Entfernen Sie den Schuh und Kniestrumpf des Mädchens."

The woman gently took hold of Akane's ankle and removed her shoe and her stocking. Despite how gentle she was being Akane couldn't help but struggle as her stocking was removed, a part of her fearful that she would give everyone more of show than she ever wanted to.  The doctor turned to the man holding her.

"Halten Sie sie sehr fest."

Natsumi held her breath, desperate to believe she was about to witness a miracle.

The doctor used his hand to chop at Akane's knee and  the back of her ankle, testing for reflexes. As he whacked her, Akane couldn't help but make little squeaks of protest at his actions.

As her legs twitched, tears of relief sprung to Natsumi's eyes. Her friend wasn't paralyzed. The nerves in her legs still worked. Just somehow, Akane's mind wasn't aware of that. Stroke? Brain tumor? A thousand unpleasant possibilities flitted through Natsumi's mind as she watched the doctor do his work.

After what seemed like an hour of him poking at her foot and leg, he let out a sigh and looked at her, take her hand in in his. He held her hand still in one of his while the other pinched the back of her hand. She grunted at this, displeased that he was still prodding her. Letting go he counted the seconds until the skin on the back of her hand was once again laying flat. "Fräu, wann war das letzte Mal, wenn Sie etwas Wasser getrunken?" He asked her. Akane looked down for a minute before for looking back at him. "Wasser?" She repeated to him. In response he just nodded his head. She bit her lip thinking for a minute. "Gest..." She trailed off realizing that was wrong. "Vor zwei Tagen, vielleicht drei." She admitted feeling like a small child suddenly who was about the be skulked.

The man hadn't even turned around to ask the woman who'd showed up with him when a water bottle was pressed into his hand. Akane watched this noticing how her hand seemed to linger longer than he seemed to be aware. "Du musst das trinken, du bist dehydriert geworden." He said as he thrust the now open bottle into her face. She took the bottle in her hands and drank from it, first a sip a first but then it was gone before she even realized it.

 

Natsumi clutched her hair in both fists and paced like a caged tiger as she watched her friend drink.

 _Dehydrated!  Akane was dehydrated!_  She'd just gotten off a transcontinental flight!  Of course she was dehydrated! Why didn't she go straight to her room to fill herself up with water!

_Because nobody told her she had to to._

Natsumi stopped her pacing to chide herself. Akane didn't have a nag of a mother hovering over her, criticizing her every action. Akane had never flown before, so it was her duty to warn her friend she'd need to drink plenty of water, both before and after the flight.

As she was placed back on her feet Akane could feel her legs nearly giving out again, but she was held steady, first by the man who had been holding her up, and at some point he'd been switch for Natsumi. The man was talking to her, but she honestly didn't catch a single word of it, she just nodded her head somewhat regularly. She was pretty sure that she was being lectured at the moment but her mind was swimming a bit too much to focus on him.

Her throat was still feeling dry as she looked up at Natsumi. "Heh, haben wir noch viel Spaß?" She did her best to joke, not sure what else to say, feeling horrible not because of her honestly continuing dehydration but because of all the commotion she had caused.

"Nein!"  Natsumi said, causing Akane to wince.   _Gott in Himmel,_ she thought, _I'm turning into my mother!_ Of course, Akane was much better behaved than her, which made Natsumi feel worse for snapping at her. Still...she had to steer Akane back to the dorm and not let her leave until she was fully hydrated. Fortunately, Austrian tapwater was the stuff of legends. "Das heißt ja," she smiled. "Aber wir müssen Trinkgläser kaufen."

Her face took on a sly look as she pulled Akane into a glassware shop. The wares gleamed on the shelves like diamonds, amid rustic crates, wax grapes, and paper shredded to look like straw.  Probably charged tourist prices, but money was the least of Natsumi's worries. As they walked into the shop Akane couldn't help but gulp, practically unable to imagine how much they might cost.

She'd of course seen glassware like this before, mostly when she had done particularly well in a series of piano competitions but at her home none of the glasses that they had looked anywhere as nice as even the cheapest piece they had here. As she came close to one row of glasses she could feel herself backing away from them, afraid of touching them in the wrong way, that would cause them all to fall to shards.

"Ich hätte gerne einen Krug und eine Menge Cocktailbrille," Natsumi told the shopkeeper, then gave Akane a grin. "Ach...und eine Tasse für mein Kind. Haben Sie mit Griffen?" As Natsumi asked for such a glass Akane gave a sharp gasp and puffed out her cheeks, in no way helping any point that she may have been trying to make.

After holding that expression for a moment Akane looked away from Natsumi, pretending to be mad at her friend. When she did her eyes fell on on a pair of ornate wine glasses. They were sparkling in the light with their a delicate glass stem that had silver vines wrapping around it and gold inset blooming flowers as those vines reached the bowl. Akane to her credit was pretty sure that they were something gaudy as sin, but even still she thought that they were just the sort of thing that Natsumi just may want pick up.

Natsumi's eyes filled with stars at the sight of those glasses.

"Diese sind perfekt!" Natsumi exclaimed without irony. Yes, they were ostentatious, but Natsumi wasn't exactly known for her good taste. ""Ich muss sieben haben!" two for herself and five to ship back to Japan for her family. "Sieben‽" Akane said, feeling light headed again, not from lack of water but from the amount she was imagining them to cost.

But now was not the time for souvenirs. They'd have to come back. She'd hoped they'd still be available, perceiving them as great treasures that were only still in stock since more people didn't know of them. She put two in her cart and led Akane over the shelf with the margarita glasses and pitchers.

"Wähle einen Satz. Wir feiern heute Abend eine Party."

Akane bit her lip as her eyes danced from set to set. "Irgendein Satz?" She asked as her eyes fell on a set of four simple looking ones that had on the foot of each a different bird engraved: barn swallow, black eagle, coal tit, and a ring ouzel. "Wie wäre es mit diesem Setz?" She said picking up the closest one to her, her eyes following the sparkles coming off of the coal tit. Akane then looked up Natsumi to see her response.

"Sehr gut," Natsumi said, putting it in the cart and carrying her purchases to the register. The woman rang them up announcing the cost to be around 88 euros, which to someone who was used to paying in yen, sounded like a paltry sum. In Natsumi's sleep deprived state, she didn't bother with her credit card, instead drawing a hundred euro bill from her moneybelt.

The woman took the bill and handed back a handful of silvery coins.

Natsumi stood there, waiting for the woman to hand her some paper bills.

It was only when the woman chimed in with a slightly uncomfortable, "Kann ich Sie helfen?" That Natsumi looked down and noticed that most of the coins her in hand were of the 2 euro denomination.

As they walked out of the little store Akane winced at the bright Sun. She turned back to Natsumi who in her estimation was rather encumbered with the glassware she'd just bought. "Gehst du mit all das in Ordnung sein?" She asked not wanting to hear the crash of glass. After all Natsumi had just spent over 10,000 yen by Akane's estimation.

"Jawohl," Natsumi said.  The glass was pretty heavy, but she wasn't going to make Akane carry any of it mere minutes after she has collapsed in an alley.

"Zurück in die Schlafsäle jetzt? Oder haben wir mehr Shopping in den Karten?" Akane asked having no idea if that figure of speech was ever used in German. She took a few big steps, her legs feeling, mercifully, back to normal now. There was a gust that caused Akane to instinctively hold her skirt down as she waited for Natsumi's answer.

"Zurück zum Schlafsaal und denn haben wir mehr Einkaufen in den Karten!"  Natsumi was still eager to see the sights, but first she had to make sure Akane was fully hydrated.  

They retraced their path to the dorms and rode the elevator to the common area on Akane's floor.  There was a sink there, and dusty couches, and tiny cube shaped TV, and a battered oak dining table with a vase filled with fake flowers, and many bookcases filled with old looking paperbacks.  

Good enough.  Natsumi brought her glassware to the sink and washed it out carefully.

After her all to close run in with exhibitionism Akane had taken their return to the dorms as an opportunity to slip out of her clothes and instead into black jeans and a red blouse. Once she had returned to the commons and found Natsumi busy at work cleaning the glasses, she had gravitated towards the old TV. She was examining it as though it was some alien artifact. She couldn't be sure but she suspected that her family had a TV like this one when she was little but that was only a suspicion and short of calling home and attempting to describe the bulbous device.

She brought that to the table after it had been filled with icewater, along with her two fancy glasses. With the clink of the glasses on the small table Akane turned her focus back from the old TV.

"Prost!"  She said, toasting Akane. Raising her own glass Akane repeated the word back to Natsumi before drinking the cold water that made her teeth hurt a little bit, still though it felt good.

"Wo wollen wir heute Nachmittag gehen?" Akane asked as she sat in one of the chesterfields that seemed to be getting to the end of its life here.

Natsumi hopped onto the couch beside her, lying flat and dangling her legs over the arm of it.  "Ich weiss es nicht.  Ich werde denken," Natsumi stared up at the ceiling as she contemplated their options for adventure.  The possibilities seemed limitless but it was hard to concentrate with the glare of the light fixture right above her.  It didn't cast much of a shadow, but it seemed to her weary eyes to be as bright as a thousand sun.  There was a pillow nearby and she placed it over her face.

By the time Akane lifted the pillow, Natsumi was snoring softly and very fast asleep.


	5. A Broken Curfew

Laying on her bed well after lights out had been declaired Akane just watched the unmoving light cast from some streetlamp down below. It was the fourth night she'd spent in this bed, unlike the previous nights though she hadn't fallen asleep the moment her head touched the pillow and had now spent the last hour listening to the girl in the room next to her talk to a series of boyfriends in what she suspected was French or maybe Spanish but couldn't quite be sure thanks to the muffling caused by the wall.

The last two days had been none stop for her. In an attempt to get everyone's circadian rhythm on the same page her entire floor was woken up at the crack of dawn and expected to eat together which for most of them wasn't too much of a problem for her it just made her nauseous, anything beyond water before eleven most morning did that to her. In that time she had barely seen Natsumi much less talk to her. Everything was built around meeting the girls from the other countries that had been placed on her floor, 25 of them. It just so happened that she had drawn the floor with two girls from Japan, herself and Ai Mizota, the same girl that had dragged her to the group when they couldn't find them at the airport. It was nice to know someone else on her floor, but she had to wonder if it was infact unlucky and that she would be growing more if she didn't know anyone.

Damn she really missed her friend.

Pulling herself out of bed, she slipped out of bed and after hunting around for her shoes went to her door, slowly carefully opening it she stuck her head out of it. Looking down the hall she couldn't see anyone, nor any light from doors. Closing the door as gently as she could manage behind her she slipped into the hallway in just a men's double XL t-shirt that truely enveloped her, looking more like a dress on her frame that a shirt, and pinned at the neck to keep it from sliding off of her. She wasn't entirely certain why she was sneaking out like this, they were allowed out of their rooms at night to get drinks and use the washroom, and while it was implied it was never explicetly forbidden to visit girls on the other floors, the only thing they weren't allowed to do was leave the building. She just really didn't want to be chewed out on the first week here. That was something more for the second week.

Coming going down the stairwell she could feel goosebumps on her legs forming. She wasn't sure if it was from the cold air or some amount of excitement. She flew down the steps the sounds echoing back to her off of the concrete walls the cold metal handrail against her skin.

Coming down to the third floor she peeked her head into this halway as well. It was even darker than her floor it seemed. She stept out of it into the hallway. Stepping away from it she heard it give a loud click that caused her to freeze, she'd forgotten to close it gently this time. She looked around waiting for her doom to fall on her, but nothing happened. Once her heart was out of her ears she started walking again, doing her best to navigate to Natsumi's room. Coming to the door that she thought was Natsumi's she gave it three quick rapps. "Natsumi!'" She said, speaking as loud as she dared while still trying to whisper.

*

Natsumi peeked her head out, grinning broadly at the appearance of her friend before gathering her into a firm hug. "Kom binnen."

*

Natsumi went to a drawer in her dresser and tossed Akane small bag of shrimp crackers. The care package from home was a godsend, she found the majority of the entrees in the dining commons to be completely inedible: Pig ear salad, goulash, boiled meat and sauerkraut. And sausages, lots and lots of sausages. Of all colors and textures. It was all very disgusting.

As Akane found a package of shrimp crackers she gave out a small cry of surprise as she lunged for it. The package along with her face nearly came in contact with the ground, but she managed to recover, righting herself and playing with the package as she looked around Natsumi's room before walking over to and sitting on the girl's bed.

But only to Natsumi. The other girls gladly accepted her main dishes, while she picked at her bread and vegetables. The desserts weren't much better. Especially on an empty stomach. What she wouldn't give for a giant bento box with seaweed salad, a hamburger steak, slices of fruit, and bed of rice with chunks of fried cutlet. Dining out was not an option. Apparently the den mothers felt the girls would mingle best through incarceration.

By contrast Akane had fared better, even if she was odd in having her favourite side dish here had been the sauerkraut. The only dish that had really turned against her was the lunch she'd opted for the vegetarian option without examining it first. It had been a sausage, of course, coloured green owing to its being made primarily made from broccoli. But the consistency, colour, and odd spicing choices had just turned both her stomach and skin against it. She'd eaten well that night at least, not even noticing how greasy everything was, even as the rest of her table complained rather loudly about it.

She complained in an offhand way about the famine to her brothers, and the next day a huge box of canned and packaged Japanese food arrived for her from amazon.de

Of course, most of the food needed to be heated up, and they'd banned all personal microwaves, and appliances other than coffeepots and teakettles. That seemed perfectly sensible to Natsumi, for safety and liability reasons, but they hadn't gone so far as to ban in-room cooking outright.

"Hast du hunger?" Natsumi went to a cheap electric tea kettle, and lifted the lid to reveal the Japanese curry she was heating up inside.

"Nein, Ich bin gut." She said even as her eyes took on the look of a hungry wolf and her gaze followed every movement of the kettle the same way she expected a boy's gaze would follow the hemline of a short skirt. "Ich haben Garnelen Cracker" She said not even looking at Natsumi instead still staring at the kettle, even if she had manage to pull her expression back from where it had been and instead was more of a longing now.

*

"Cracker sind ein Snack," Natsumi said, unplugging the kettle and spooning curry into two mugs.  "I habe kein Reis," Natsumi said apologetically as she handed one to Akane.  "Nein, nein, das ist nicht wahr.  Ich habe Reis.  Ich habe keinen Reiskocher."

"Ah, Ich kann das nich annehmen." Akane said even as she took the mug fro Natsumi and breathed in the glorious scent. "Welche Art ist es?" she asked continuing to breathe it in, almost reminiscent of how other teens her age might huff markers.

"Golden Curry. Mit Hähnchen, Karotten, und Erbsen."

She looked around the room now wondering just how Natsumi had decided to decorate her little bit of personal space. Most of the other girls had taken this as a chance to hang up posters of their favourite boy band or solo act. The American girl on her floor had decided on trying to turn her room into something of a cultural embassy from Texas. Akane had followed suit, and put up some posters but hers were of conductors often surrounded by posters of various celestial bodies.

Natsumi's room was decorated in dramatic black, pinks, greens, blues, and purples, with lots of nature photos, blown up to wall-print size and framed in black-- Flower fields, northern lights, lightning storms, a skeletal tree at night lit only by fireflies and a starry sky.

"Wie sind sie?" Akane asked, before adding. "Die Mädchen." She clarified, hoping that Natsumi wasn't having any... personality conflicts with the others.

"Serh gut!"  Natsumi said with a grin.  "Ich bin eigentlich sehr beliebt hier!"

It was true.  Back home most girls just saw her as Seijuro's mildly bitchy twin sister, but Natsumi's picky eating had won her quite a few friends on her of floor. The British, French, American, Eastern Block, and Belgian girls were eager to sit at her table, since there was an excellent chance they might score an extra dessert or entree.  And a lot of these girls were addicted to Japanese media, which made for quite a lot of (ahem) animated conversation.  Plus it didn't hurt that Natsumi had brushed up on the table etiquette for every nationality they hailed from, just to avoid another crepe incident.  It was rather amusing, since the manners varied so widely from country to country. Natsumi had taken to resting her forearms on the table, with her hands clasped or crossed at the wrists as she held court, while, the English speakers, with their hands in the laps, were giving queasy looks to the French speakers, with their elbows on the table, and vice-versa, and they probably had no idea what was making them uncomfortable.

Of course, her newfound popularity had won her an enemy from the leader of another budding clique, as well.  Greta, the delegate from China, had taken to staring daggers at her.  At all hours.  It was actually rather creepy.

"Und du? Wie sind deine Mädchen?"

As she was asked the question she should have known was coming, Akane had to consider just how to answer it. The truth was the girls had been very friendly on her floor. The problem was that one of them was too friendly, far too friendly. "Oh, weißt du." Akane started. "Sie sind sehr freundlich. Sehr freundlich." She said with a nod. She turned her attention down to the mug of curry. Scooping up some of it in the spoon that Natsumi had left in the mug for her. She enjoyed the smooth spice and the way it warmed her insides. "So gut!" She said mostly to herself before greedily taking another spoonful of curry.

As the mug came to an end Akane placed it down on the ground by her feet. Once it was safely on the ground she let herself fall back onto Natsumi's bed. She enjoyed the way that Natsumi had dressed her room. "Hast du mehr erforscht?" She asked, even as her past few days had her entire floor drug out and marched around some carefully selected areas near the dorms.

"Nein."  Natsumi said, flourishing at a small whiteboard.  She'd been making a list of things she'd been meaning to do-- get clothes hangers, buy a watermelon, throw a party, find postcards, pick out duvets for all her relatives, etc, etc... and hadn't crossed off a single item so far.  She started to worry that the dry-erase might set into the board.

Looking at the whiteboard Akane got up and walked over to it, examining the list one it. Without a word she snatched up the red marker that was sitting on top of it and added to the list: Explore the city, Invade France, Museums, See the stars of a new sky, Disko. The last item on the list she trailed off writing leaving a streak on the board after that last partial word.

Turning back to Natsumi, Akane has stars in her eyes. "Diskothek." She said, before her focus again changed to looking around the room, she quickly looked through some of Natsumi's drawers before finding what she was looking for and finally turning her attention back to Natsumi. "Lass uns in die Diskothek gehen." Bringing her hands to her waist she wrapped the belt she'd stolen from Natsumi's drawer, in an attempt to turn her comically oversized shirt into more of a dress. "Die Diskothek!" She said as loud as she dared, which was probably too loud anyways.

Striking a pose just then Akane gave Natsumi her best come hither expression. With her small stature though it wasn't so much an expression that would beckon a person as it would just remind others of her somewhat childlike stature.

Natsumi's eyes went wide.  "Ja!  Ein Diskothek in Deutschland!  Wir müssen gehen!"

She went to her armoire (which looked more like a locker to Natsumi) and pulled out a dress and offered it to Akane.  Shoes would be a problem, Akane and Natsumi didn't have even remotely the same size feet.  The best she could offer would be kneehigh socks and/or house slippers.  For a moment Natsumi toyed with the idea of both of them going like that, passing it off as a fad in her homeland, wonder if it might catch on, but then realized they'd be better off protecting their toes.

Akane walked over to the door poking her head out of it, wanting to make sure that there wasn't some wondering rabid dog, otherwise known as one of the den mothers. As her eyes scanned up the hall way she heard something from the other direction she'd been looking. Snapping her head around she saw there was an open door with it's light spilling out to the otherwise darkened hallway.

For an instant she wanted to slam the door, but she managed to control herself and gently close it instead. In the process saving her own chin from the ancient wood of the door.

Even as she is standing there she can feel panic building inside of her, was that just a girl with her door open for some reason or was one of the den mother's doing a spot check. Did they do that she asked herself, they hadn't since she'd been here, but there has to be a first night for it right. She was spiralling now as her mind thought on this question over and over. If they were already caught should they just go for it, since they probably wouldn't get punished any more strictly than they would at this point.

She wasn't even aware that she was tapping her foot on the ground now, as she thought, each tap permission to move forward to the next thought that came constantly and smoothly to her mind.

Natsumi's face was still buried in the armoire, and she grabbed a pair of shimmery silver hightop sneakers and offered them to Akane, before grabbing a pair of white boots for herself. 

"Wir können für deine Schuhe in dein Zimmer gehen."   The shoes were probably at least too sizes too big, but it might be more worthwhile to offer her an extra pair of thick socks than risk a trip to Akane's room.

 


End file.
